My work spans a range of topics and methodologies in literacy, with reading theory as a central theme. My doctoral research involved developing a computer simulation of word learning from experience. At this time I also began corresponding with colleagues at the Moscow State Pedagogical University, resulting in visits to conduct collaborative work in 1991 and 1996. In the mid-1990s my work shifted to focus more specifically on reading theory and practice in online environments like the web. In the past few years I have begun working with video as a primary data, exploring the application of technologies for capturing and analyzing video data in studies of online reading.

Model building and simulation have been important elements of my research. I have explored a wide range of model building methodologies including logic programming, artificial neural networks, and hybrid systems. As a result of my collaboration with Russian colleagues I have also explored the history of reading methods in Russia, where the concepts of phonological and phonemic awareness were first developed and applied in literacy education by Konstantin Ushinsky more than 150 years ago.

Ongoing research:

·Autism, Agency, and Human-Computer Interaction.

·Reading and decision-making in a simulated ecommerce task.

·An information foraging approach to understanding online reading.

·On the role of text and graphics in comprehending the four-panel comic strip.

I am currently engaged in several projects that address social aspects of computer use, decision making in online literacy, modeling of online literacies as information foraging, and the psychology of the classic four-panel comic strip.

I have two projects currently in development, one focusing on the ways the availability of choice in hypertext links influences reader response to literary text and a second project that is more methodological, focusing on the ways the designs of experimental tasks in online studies of reading may influence the results that are obtained.